1. Field of Invention
This invention relates to network communication systems and in particular to using network communication systems to obtain vehicle information.
2. Related Art
As economy becomes global and individuals become increasingly mobile, there is a concomitant rise in demand for transportation-dependent services. These transportation-dependent services include shipping/delivery services, moving services, and travel-related services such as commercial airlines, taxis, and limousines. Companies that provide transportation-dependent services face management challenges that stem from the fact that transportation units usually travel too far to be monitored closely. Often, these companies have little choice but to rely on employee reports to find out about the types of use the companies"" transportation units are subjected to. If an employee leaves company site in a company track and returns several hours later, the employer cannot verify whether the employee was diligently carrying out his work responsibilities the entire time that he was gone. The difficulty in assessing employee diligence and the general lack of information about usage of company vehicles adversely affect the companies"" operational efficiency.
A method and apparatus that allow a person who is not a vehicle passenger to obtain information about vehicle usage is needed.
Presented are a method and a system by which an individual can obtain usage information of a vehicle without being a passenger in the vehicle. The system includes a mobile unit and a monitoring unit (e.g., a computer) that communicate with each other through a data network. In a first environment, the mobile unit, which may be located inside a vehicle, receives data from a part of the vehicle (e.g., the odometer) and processes the data to derive parameters such as the velocity and the travel distance. The mobile unit uses these parameters to determine the fraction of time the vehicle is traveling, in idle, or in a parked state within a predefined time period, either by processing the information itself or by transmitting the appropriate data to a remote computer.
In one embodiment, the mobile unit may use the Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine the location of the vehicle carrying the mobile unit. In this embodiment, the mobile unit calculates parameters such as the velocity and travel distance using changes in the vehicle location. Using these parameters, the mobile unit determines the travel time, idle time, and parked time of the vehicle in a substantially similar manner as in the first embodiment.